Forty years ago, Time magazine declared 1976 to be “The Year of the Evangelical.” The occasion was the candidacy of then-former governor Jimmy Carter who introduced many Americans to a phrase they had never heard before: “born-again Christian.”
This year, Evangelicals are in the news again, and again, for mostly political reasons. It’s difficult to avoid the plethora of stories about how “Evangelicals” are voting and what it all means.
This broadcast is about none of this. Instead I want to talk about the word “Evangelical” in the context where it makes the most sense: what people believe. In the process we may learn things we probably didn’t know but should.
Writing for Christianity Today, “BreakPoint This Week” co-host Ed Stetzer and Leith Anderson of the National Association of Evangelicals sought to define what the term “Evangelical” means, especially in this election year.
Most surveys, especially political ones, depend on self-identification. If a person calls herself an Evangelical, then she is counted as one. Others use denominational affiliation as a proxy. Neither of these gives us an accurate estimate: They either include people who probably shouldn’t be included or miss people who should be included.
Continue reading BreakPoint – Evangelicals and Politics: So What is an Evangelical, Anyway?
